GeoComply receives conditional license from Ohio gambling regulator

GeoComply, a company that offers fraud prevention and cybersecurity solutions, announced its entry into Ohio. The company said Wednesday that its ID verification and geolocation services received a conditional license from the gambling regulator in the state, the Ohio Casino Control Commission.

This made GeoComply the first and so far only ID verification and geolocation services provider in Ohio. The planned launch for Ohio's regulated sports betting market is set for January 1, 2023. As the launch is getting closer, the gambling regulator already started awarding licenses. So far, the Ohio Casino Control Commission awarded 10 operator licenses, as well as four supplier licenses.

Currently, companies that offer know-your-customer (KYC) services are required to have a license similarly to gambling operators. As one such operator, GeoComply's conditional supplier license includes its market-leading geolocation services product called IDComply. For the moment, IDComply is the only licensed age and identity verification product in Ohio.

According to GeoComply, its solution IDComply "streamlines existing KYC and AML processes," via a single unified solution. This unique technology allows operators to get a high rate of identity and age verification. Additionally, the process accesses different data sources and vendors through a single API.

Lindsay Slader, GeoComply's SVP of Compliance commented in a statement and revealed that the company is delighted to get an early license approval in Ohio. She added: "Compliance deadlines are coming quickly and we are in the strongest position to ensure our customers meet the requirements and submit complete and final geolocation procedures by November 2nd."

Under the current regulations set by the Ohio Casino Control Commission, operators interested in offering sports betting services need to submit their operational plans until November 2, 2022. This deadline set by the Commission aims to ensure the timely approval of those plans considering that the operators are interested to start accepting bets as early as January 1, which marks the universal start date for the market.

Earlier this month, in light of the opening week of the National Football League 2022 season, GeoComply tracked the geolocation volumes. The data released showed "an unbelievable start" of the new NFL season with geolocation volumes increasing 71.5%. For the same period last year, geolocation volumes halted at 60.1m, while this year, soared to a record 103.1m for the opening NFL weekend. The statistics released by GeoComply revealed that the launching of legal sports betting by more US states significantly impacted the geolocation volumes. In fact, New York had the highest volume of transactions representing 15.3% of the whole market.